The Wisdom of Barnyard Bruke: Rain, Corn Diseases, More Hog Lingo

Greetings ta ever one in Western Illinois and all readers of The Quill. Rain keeps a come'n, but I don't hear any farmers complain'n. "Rain makes grain" as the say'n goes. It can also bring on certain moisture related diseases.

There is some bacteria related corn disease occur'n out in Nebraksa. It resembles "Gray leaf spot" which is a fungus and can be treated.

If'n a feller treats the bacteria disease with a fungicide it will only make matters worse. That's just what is needed, a new disease work'n its way our direction. It can cause yield losses of up ta 15% or more.

Two weeks ago this column held info on pig lingo. With the state fair go'n on and the importance of hogs to our rural economy it is probably well to brush up some more on your hog language.

Here we go again:

A hog usually refers to a large pig. It can also be an epithet for someone who is self-indulgent, gluttonous, or vulgar, as in the Hawaiian legend of Pele, who called the beast Kampuaa a "hog."

To be hog tight refers to pastures that are fenced with woven wire, to keep the hogs penned in. Perhaps it also means one is reluctant to spend that ten-penny coin.

To hog tie something is to tie together it's legs to render it helpless.

To hog down the corn is to be turned loose in fields to feed on corn or other crops meant for hog consumption.

To be hog drunk is an old term meaning the same things as swine drunk, meaning excessively so.

A road hog is a driver who "hogs" the road, takes up more space than he is legally alloted; to take more than he is due.

A hogchoker is a kind of fish, so poor that it isn't even worth feeding to the hogs.

Hogger is another name for hog, in British dialect.

Hoggin is a natural mixture of gravel and clay used for constructing roads or paths.

A hog is also a kind of broom used for scraping the underwater parts of a vessel, the hog piece or hog stave portion of the keel. A hog may also refer to a large railway locomotive, or a motorcycle made by Harley Davidson, or it can be a machine used by the lumber industry that grinds slabs of wood into all pieces for fuel.

The hog score is a term used in the sport of curling.

Hog fat means fat enough but not too fat ("She was not hog fat; she could see her toes").

To drive one's hogs to market is to snore very loudly. (He snored so loud we thought he was driving his hogs to market," said Johnathan Swift in 1738).

Hog's Back is a part of Niagara Falls.

A hogback is something thought to resemble the arched back of a hog. In golf, it's a ridge of ground or a hole that has a ridge on the fairway.

Hogg is a term used in Britain for a young sheep before its second shearing.

The hog-nosed skunk and hog-nose snake have snouts that resemble the pig's.

A hoghead is a measure of volume that goes back for over six hundred years and has ranged from 62.5 to 140 gallons. In the United States, a hogshead refers to liquid measure, especially the equivalent to 63 wine gallons.

Hogwash is garbage fed to hogs. It also refers to something worthless or false. The Oxford English Dictionary of 1440 refers to such swill fed to swine: "They in the kechyn, for iape, pouryd on here hefd hoggyswasch." Translation: "They in the kitchen, for jest, poured hogwash on her head."

To go hog wild is to be crazy with excitement; out of control.

To go whole hog is to do something to the highest possible degree. There are various theories about the origin of this expression. One says that to go whole hog was a sarcastic term that came about in the eighteenth century during the time that the English shilling was known as a "hog." A spendthrift, willing to spend an entire shilling to entertain a friend in a pub, was willing to "go whole hog."

A hog was also the name for a ten-penny coin in Ireland, so that going the whole hog might be a comment on extravagance, maybe sarcastically so. The expression first appeared in print in the United States in 1828, with the suggestion that one supports wholeheartedly, stops at nothing, goes all the way.

Hog waller refers to a hog wallow, or a piece of land where the ground has small holes that fill with water.

If something is big enough to choke a hog, it is probably big enough to choke a cow.

To hog and panther someone is to cajole or henpeck them.

Hog age refers to male adolescence, that awkward time between boyhood and manhood.

If someone is eating high off the hog, it refers to an expression that came about in the nineteenth century when the British army saw that enlisted men received shoulder and leg cuts of pork while officers were treated to cuts from the top loin.

Hog killing weather refers to cool, autumn weather, the time when hogs were traditionally butchered.

Hog Heaven is, theoretically, the place where the hog's spirit goes after the hog is butchered. But used colloquially, it refers to an idyllic place usually referred to in a light hearted manner.

A hogger is a person who raises hogs. It can also refer to a railroad engineer.

Hog and hominy is another way of referring to pork and cornbread: plain but nourishing rations.

To hog off the corn is to turn the hogs out into the cornfield so they will clean up the ears left behind after harvesting.

To say "that's another hog off the corn" means there is one less person to feed.

To hog can also refer to planting one's field with grain without plowing the soil first. "He hogged his wheat in this spring." It may also mean to cut timber in a wasteful manner.

A hoggery is a British term, like piggery, meaning where hogs/pigs are kept.

A hogmolly is the same as a hogsucker, of the genus Hypentelium and found in clear, cool steams of the eastern United States.

A hog-leg is a pistol; "He had a hog-leg in his belt."

To know as much about something as a hog knows about Sunday is not to know very much at all.

That's the way the hog bladder bounces means that's the way things go. C'est la vie.

To be as independent as a hog on ice is not to be very independent, for hogs have a hard time moving about on a slippery surface with their pointed little hooves. In fact, if hogs were to find themselves on ice, their legs might very well slide out from under the poor creatures, or they might very well be spread-eagled, unable to get up again. The saying, however, indicates cocky independence, supreme confidence, and is a very old saying in the United States.

Well, there ya have it then, enough hog lingo information ta get ya into the state fair this week. There is yet more information on hog lingo I intend to share with youn's but I'm a gonna save it fer another column.

Have a good rest of the week and try not ta get caught up in high water problems if'n ya go ta the state fair August 16th fer "Ag Day."